Talking SCBWI

Over at the always entertaining Fuse #8, there's an interesting discussion going on about SCBWI. Now, the conversation, in my opinion, started from a reallllllly bad place (as I explain somewhere in the comments of the post), but people picked up the ball and ran well with it.

There's interesting discussion within the comments about how SCBWI can serve its more published members vs. the newer members, though I find that there's an odd line somehow drawn about what is and isn't useful to someone... but that line falls in a different place for every different someone. I think that's a big conundrum. On a basic level like that, a seminar on marketing is different for someone on their fifth novel vs. someone who writes for the magazine market vs. an illustrator who has done two picture books for hire vs. a non-fiction series author vs.... It's easy to say the organziation should do more (and you'll see that the heads of SCBWI weigh in agreeing with that), but coming up with specific ways that please folks is far harder. Good convo, and maybe someone will have the perfect solution.

Finally on that conversation, I believe folks underestimate the potential (not to mention fun!) of meeting other likeminded people and all the possible good that can come from that... in many obvious and many not-so-obvious ways. On the personal side, the people I've met and become friends/acquaintances with are well worth any money SCBWI membership and conferences have cost me. On the professional side, the benefit is off the charts and not even measurable. I could be overblowing the importance of this people stuff, of course. I doubt it, much as I doubted folks who said "boy, you're wasting your time blogging." But I might be... and since it's totally unquantifiable, this too boils down to a matter of expectations and opinion. Same as it ever was.

Anyway, join in the convo over there, over here, or anywhere else, for that matter!